Beachballs on the reg

[muxlow]

Hi, I'm curious if anyone has tips on addressing the spinning beachballs that I've been encountering enough to make me write this post. They always resolve but sitting for 30-60 seconds after copying or pressing record or some other mundane task really kills the mood.

Specs:
[*] M2 Mac mini
[*] 16g memory
[*] macOS 13.6.1 Ventura
[*] Digital Performer 11.31
[*] Motu 24Ao

Notes:
[*] I restart regularly
[*] I compact sessions and delete Undo history regularly
[*] I thought it was because my one session is particularly large, but it happens on smaller ones as well

Barring the major debugging routes (disabling plug-ins, booting safe mode, OS reinstall, etc.), are "best practice" tips to keeping things running smoothly?

Also bonus points if you can verify that it's safe to upgrade to Sonoma with DP 11.3.1. I'm mid-major-project and it seems unwise.

Thanks!

[mikehalloran]

Are you a long time DP user?

Do you use Kontakt?

[muxlow]

About 20 years. No Kontakt.

[Michael Canavan]

I would not upgrade to Sonoma until at least version 14.5 is out.

The firs place to look is always plugins IMO, if you can handle it, disable all your plugins in the Preferences/Plugins menu, make a copy of your current set first though.

After that if it doesn't work it's drivers.

[mikehalloran]

About 20 years. No Kontakt.

Ok. Deleting the VI cache files solved this for many of us. Not to worry about deleting anything necessary as all apps rebuild missing caches and preferences when necessary. I now do this once a year.

To delete the VI caches, open the following folder: com.motu.MotuAudioSystem You can use the Go menu or navigate as follows.

/Users/(account name)/Library/Preferences/com.motu.MotuAudioSystem/

Delete any cache files there including Audio Unit Info Cache 64-bit, VST3 Info Cache v2 and VST Info Cache 64-bit plus any 32 bit versions.

Reboot. When you relaunch DP, the caches will rebuild and your plug-ins will re-verify.

When I did this, I also found AudioDesk caches going back to the 1990s in there.


Another maintenance routine is to Reset Launch Services. This resets them for your System and all of your applications. This is another that I now run annually. Since your Mac is fairly new, this should have little effect. If, however, your machine takes too long to boot or shut down (or doesn't shut down at all) or if any app—especially DP—routinely takes too long to launch, do this. This resets Launch Services to default.

1. Open Terminal and run these commands (copy and paste):
2. /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -lint -r -f -v -dump -domain local -domain system -domain user -domain network <Enter or Return key>
3. killall Dock <Enter or Return key>
4. sudo mdutil -E / <Enter or Return key> (enter Admin password when prompted, then <Enter or Return key>)
5. Restart your Mac


If neither of these does it for you, I'll give some tips on how to find old .kxts that might be trying to load or other bots that get in the way.


I agree with staying away from (or upgrading) Sonoma until macOS 14.5 is released. The current version, 14.4.1 has major issues.